After a 35 year gap, Kate Bush will be performing live at Hammersmith tomorrow night in the first of a series of sell-out performances and I wish her every success as, in my view, she is our greatest female songwriter. She is totally unique and has written some of the most original music that I have encountered. Not to everyone’s taste, Kate has never followed musical trends or or genres, and always done exactly what she wanted to do taking control of her career right from the start.
Her music has evolved and constantly changed direction and this in itself is hugely satisfying and reassuring too. Every time I listen to an individual song or one of her albums, I am amazed at the ideas and the scale of her imagination. Elton John said in a recent interview that her duet with Peter Gabriel “Don’t Give Up” had helped him through a difficult period and I had a similar experience with her “The Red Shoes “Album which did the same for me when life became tough; it includes a heart-rendingly beautiful ballad “Moments of Pleasure” which I found gave me strength and the need to treasure the important things in our lives. Although not a commercial success, this album is one of my all time favourites.
As “Wuthering Heights” is still her most recognised hit, I decided to paint my version of it with Kate dressed as she was in the video but set in East Wickham Open Space close to the farm where she grew up – a Kate Bush fantasy. Many of her earliest songs were composed at home at East Wickham farm. One of her biographers refers to this area and it may well be that she spent time wandering, thinking and perhaps even having ideas for her songs on this sit. I tried many times to paint Kate and have just posted one finished shortly after the experience mentioned above in 1995. This is in the People Gallery along with Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd, who helped her in the early days by listening to her at the farm and putting her in Air Studios to record good quality demo tapes of some of Kate’s songs.
Since publishing the above, Kate Bush opened at Hammersmith Apollo on 26th August and the initial response has been described as “triumphant”, “weird, beautiful, spellbinding”, receiving unanimous plaudits from virtually all the media.
During this time I have also added two new Italian landscapes to the “Places” gallery.